A pianist to the rescue

This Sunday, KPAC continues their summer rebroadcasts of the Symphony’s 2009-2010 season. Sunday, August 1 at 2 p.m. Texas Public Radio will air the concert that featured Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 led by Alondra de la Parra. These programs continue every Sunday through the end of September.

As we enjoy hearing the concerts from last season again, I’m reminded that the 2010-2011 season is almost upon us. After the October 2 “Meet Your New Maestro” concert, the Classics season opens on October 8 and 9 with a concert led by Christopher Seaman. Christopher did such a great job the last two seasons as our artistic advisor. I especially appreciate that he brought us an Elgar symphony last year and in October will led the Vaughan Williams second symphony. Both English composers are far too under appreciated by American orchestras. The program will be:

October 8 & 9, 2010 at 8:00 p.m. at the Majestic Theatre

Christopher Seaman, conductor and Jeffrey Swann, piano

Dukas The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2

Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 2, “London”

Our soloist for the Chopin is Jeffrey Swann. Although he now lives in New York City and is head of a music festival in Italy, Jeffrey Swann is a Texas pianist. He was born in Arizona, but grew up in the Dallas area. I’ve known Jeff for YEARS. In fact, he was a real hero for me just before my daughter was born 17 years ago.

In April of 1993, I was the Orchestra Manager of the Jacksonville Symphony and Jeff was scheduled to be our soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3. The other work on the program was Beethoven Symphony No. 3, “Eroica.” Eroica means heroic in Latin and Jeff really saved the day for me. Three days before the concert our Music Director had to have emergency back surgery. Our Associate Conductor took over the program. This particular Music Director loved to give 45-minute pre-concert lectures before every concert and that hole had to be plugged too. The Associate Conductor was brand new and he asked me to do the lecture so he could concentrate on preparing the music and the rehearsals. (This concert was now his unexpected debut with the orchestra.)

Jeff landed in Jacksonville the next day and learned the news. To make this even more intense, we were expecting our daughter to be born any second. I wasn’t the most relaxed person at the Jacksonville Symphony that week! Jeff offered to do half the lecture: he would talk 20 minutes about the concerto and play a few excerpts from the work. Then I would only have to prepare a 25-minute lecture on the symphony.

The day before the concert, Jeff casually asked me what I was planning to say about the Beethoven Symphony. I explained that I’d found time to outline my remarks, but I hadn’t yet found time to get a recording and mark the excerpts I needed to play to demonstrate my points. I said I’d probably be up half the night getting it prepared. Jeff said, “Don’t worry. I’ll just stay at the piano after my part of the talk and play whatever parts of the Symphony you need me to play.” I asked him if we needed to rehearse this or if he needed a list of the sections of the 50-minute long symphony I needed. He said, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll just wing it.”

So, the next day I was standing in front of several hundred patrons talking about Beethoven’s “Eroica.” When I made a musical point, I’d turn to Jeff and he’d play the passage at the piano. Pretty impressive, eh? What really stunned me was that he didn’t even have THE MUSIC! He was playing everything from the symphony by memory! Jeff isn’t a conductor and therefore there is no real reason he should have anything but piano concertos by memory. But, he’s such a fantastic musician that he knows it all. He has lectured (speaking in German) about Wagner operas in Germany and often leads musical talks (speaking in Italian) at his festival in Italy. In New York City, he has become well-known for his lecture/recitals where he combines music with a talk about the culture of the time and the lives of the composers.

This is one of the best parts of my job. Getting to know artists like Jeffrey Swann is a complete delight. I know you’ll enjoy his Chopin in October. Here is a brief bio:

Jeffrey Swann enjoys an international performing career which has taken him throughout the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia. He won first prize in the Dino Ciani Competition sponsored by La Scala in Milan, a gold medal at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, and top honors at the Warsaw Chopin, Van Cliburn, Vianna da Motta and Montreal Competitions, as well as the Young Concert Artists auditions in New York City. His large and varied repertoire includes more than 60 concertos as well as solo works ranging from Bach to Boulez.

In addition to presenting lecture/recitals worldwide, Mr. Swann has performed with the symphonies of Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Indiana, Dallas, Saint Louis, Phoenix, Houston, Lexington, Baltimore and Minneapolis; and in Europe with the orchestras of Rotterdam, The Hague, Belgian National and Radio, Santa Cecilia, La Scala, Maggio Fiorentino (Florence), RAI Turin and Rome, Südwest Rundfunk, Bayerischer Rundfunk, the Prague Philharmonic, Radio France de Montpellier, and the London Philharmonia, among many others. The conductors with whom he has performed include Zdenek Macal, David Robertson, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Marek Janowski, Kazimirz Kord, Myung-Whun Chung, Roberto Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Daniele Gatti and Leonard Slatkin. In addition, he continues to lecture regularly at the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, Germany, and at Wagner Societies in the United States and Italy. Mr. Swann has also served as a judge at many competitions, most recently at the Utrecht International Liszt Competition.

A native of Northern Arizona, Jeffrey Swann studied with Alexander Uninsky at Southern Methodist University and with Beveridge Webster and Adele Marcus at The Juilliard School, where he received his B.M., M.M. and D.M.A. Degrees.

Mr. Swann can be heard on Ars Polona, Deutsche-Gramophon, RCA-Italy, Replica, Fonit-Cetra, Music & Arts, and Agorá recordings. His CD, “The Virtuoso Liszt” (Music & Arts) won the Liszt Society’s Grand Prix, and his first volume of the Complete Beethoven Sonatas (Agorá) was chosen one of the Best of the Year by Fanfare magazine. His most recent release features works for piano and orchestra by Chopin with the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano.

Since 2007 Jeffrey Swann has been Artistic Director of the Dino Ciani Festival & Academy in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Since 2008 he has been the Adel Artist-in-Residence at Northern Arizona University, and in the Fall of 2010 will join the faculty as Professor of Piano at New York University.